There are many, many things which I do to encourage and inspire others. I run and keep my weight down because what I preach, I also want to practise in my life. Many Masters don’t do this kind of thing — losing weight and taking exercise. Their God-realisation will not disappear if they become exorbitantly fat.
RB 443. 4 December 1981↩
RB 444. 20 December 1981↩
RB 445. 20 December 1981↩
RB 446. 21 December 1981↩
The first five miles I ran and the second five miles I walked and ran. Like this I continued, and finally it became twenty-seven miles.
Even from the first mile I was literally dying. My whole body was swimming in perspiration.
RB 447. 21 December 1981↩
RB 448. 29 December 1981↩
I ran seven miles by myself, and at least four times I was attacked by dogs. Perhaps the reason they attacked me was because I was wearing a red shirt. When they came at me, I stood there very bravely until they stopped barking at me. In one case a dog crossed the street to where I was running, but it didn’t bite me.
Especially when you are running fast, you get alarmed when you suddenly see a dog. If you are running slowly, it is not such a shock. In my case, I was going so slowly — at bullock-cart speed.
RB 449. 31 December 1981↩
When Kalatit runs, he looks like he has some bitter thing in his mouth. His whole face is miserable.
Gayatri is also miserable, absolutely miserable, when she runs. She does not have the misery of tiredness; she is just miserable.
In every race Nilima gives her life-breath at the end. Today she and Karabi were sprinting so fast at the end. They were chasing Nirjhari. Then, in the last two metres, Nilima gave up.
Whenever Nayana sees me, she smiles. Hashi tries to smile, but Chetana does not even try. She surrenders.
Today Garima was very good. When she saw me, she folded her hands and bowed to me. The other day I made complaints that she did not even seem to recognise me while she was running. So this time when she saw me, she bowed.
RB 450. 31 December 1981↩
Each disciple-runner has some peculiarity. When I see “tall man” — Adhiratha — how he is struggling! His strides are quite long, but there is no speed inside them. He looks like he is going so fast, but what actually happens? Why is he behind so many people?
RB 451. 31 December 1981↩
RB 452. 31 December 1981↩
RB 453. 4 January 1982↩
When the boy saw that I didn’t understand him and also that I was too tired to talk, he said very soulfully, “Thanks a lot.” There was no sarcasm involved. Then he ran back and entered into his father’s car.
Another day while I was running in Mazatlan very early in the morning, I saw an American running. This man I had previously seen playing tennis. He was bearded and not very nice looking. He asked me the time, and I said, “Five fifty-six.”
Then he said, “Damn you! Why can’t you say four minutes of six!”
I never use the expression “Thanks a lot,” but I told him, “Thanks a lot,” and continued running.
RB 454. 9 January 1982↩
There were about seven or eight taxis in front of the hotel. One taxi driver, an old man, was joking with me. He came very near me and was watching me. Then he said to me, “Champ, you have two long legs. Champ, you have long legs, long legs!” I was wearing shorts, although it was quite chilly. He was a gentleman, so he was wearing trousers.
It was so dangerous there. There was no proper sidewalk. I saw so many scooters. How fast they went! It reminded me of our vacation in Bermuda a few years ago.
RB 455. 11 January 1982↩
RB 456. 17 January 1982↩
In this world people can be good or bad. The principal there says that I will be able to run there in the morning or evening for free, without having to rent the building. So he is proving to be a very good man.
RB 457. 26 January 1982↩
Many years ago the Supreme gave me the capacity to run, but He didn’t give me enough time. I was acting like a slave to so many people — every day serving five masters at my various jobs in the ashram. What could I do? I just didn’t have time to practise running, although I had the capacity. Of course, now I have eight or nine hundred masters to please!
In addition to the disciples, I have two more masters: my two dogs, Sona and Kanu. For the last two weeks my little three-month-old Kanu has been blessing me so that I get no peace at night. He just cries and cries. When I finally bring him upstairs, he is so restless. He won’t stay in one place for more than two minutes. Sometimes around seven o’clock he rests a little, but usually until eight-thirty in the morning when the disciples come to work, I am a perfect slave to my little dog.
RB 458. 31 January 1982↩
I was making loud noises while I was running, huffing and puffing. The fat man said to me, “How old are you?”
I said, “Fifty.”
“You are running like a hundred-year-old man,” he said.
After I covered thirty metres more, a thought entered into my mind: “Let me invite him to run with me.” But this was all in the mental world, not in the practical world, and I kept on running.
RB 459. 31 January 1982↩
One day we shall be able to fight against our fate. This year in the New York Marathon we have to do well.
RB 460. 31 January 1982↩
Sarita and Snigdha were running together. Sarita looked like a mountain and Snigdha looked like a Lilliputian next to her.
RB 461. 31 January 1982↩
Vinaya’s car-sauna is hotter than the hottest. It can kill the strongest man on earth. On that day we drove about ten miles in his car-sauna along my running course on Union Turnpike. After ten miles I got out. When I opened the door and stepped out onto somebody’s lawn, I almost fainted. I told him that the owners wouldn’t appreciate it if I fainted on the lawn, and I got back into the car.
Once I entered the car, I asked him to drive as fast as possible back to my house and not to worry about the police. On Union Turnpike we were going seventy, seventy-five, eighty miles per hour. I am a fool and he is a fool. We didn’t think of lowering the heat or opening the windows. We just went on driving as fast as possible. He said, “Guru, before I joined the path, I did this kind of thing. Now you are asking me again to drive eighty-five miles per hour.” He was so delighted to go back to his old life!
When we reached my house, some boys had to carry me out of the car onto the lawn. One was massaging my head, one my feet. They put ice all over my body, and there were two fans. I couldn’t recognise anyone, and I couldn’t even get up.
My next door neighbour Mrs. Chino came out of her house in a panic. She said that she didn’t want to lose me. “I recently lost my husband and I don’t want to lose you,” she said.
Finally the boys took me upstairs. I closed the door — only to have a more serious attack. I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
I always used to advocate that Amita and others ride in Vinaya’s sauna. Amita says she enjoys it like anything. But for me, Vinaya puts it on the hottest. He wants to show off — to show me how powerful his sauna is. Before I enter into the car, he runs the motor for ten or fifteen minutes. When he shows off and when I show off, where do we stand?
You may ask why my inner beings didn’t warn me that this would happen. They could have, but they knew I was not going to die, and they wanted to give me an experience. This suffering that I went through was necessary; otherwise, I would not have learned the needed lesson and taken the message seriously. Now this message I am giving to all my disciples.
The sauna can be very dangerous if you try to lose five or six pounds all at once. The sauna should be used only for ten or fifteen minutes — not for an hour or two. Eat less and run more: this is the only cure for weight problems. The only answer is to run and then to not eat, to not eat and then to run. In my case I also put weights on my legs and get very good exercise when I walk.
Those who say they don’t eat and still gain weight have to pray to the goddess of air: “Please don’t come near me.” As the Indians traditionally pray to Saturn, “Saturn, please don’t come near me,” they have to pray to the air goddess or the wind god, “Please don’t come near me, because if you come, I gain weight.”
Recently I took some pills which Dhananjaya bought in Mexico. If you take these Mexican pills, you may lose nine pounds but you get unbearable cramps. The other day I took them, only to die. When I got the cramps, I screamed from upstairs for help. Baoul and Databir were outside. They heard me calling, but because of the birds’ screaming, nobody in the house could hear me. Now Dhanu has installed a buzzer system in the house so that I can be heard from upstairs. It rings in every room of the house.
The Mexican pills were not as dangerous as the sauna, but they were still quite dangerous. From now on I have decided, “No pills, no sauna!”
RB 462. 3 February 1982↩
Today I ran three miles. For the first two miles I walked for 400 metres and I ran for 400 metres. This is what happens when you don’t practise for a month. In Puerto Rico I had a tooth problem and a very high fever, so I couldn’t run. So many other things as well have prevented me from training.
RB 463. 13 February 1982↩
The course was five loops, so it was very confusing. Pahar and Nirvik could not follow the signs. After running five miles, we ran 400 or 500 metres extra!
Cahit Yeter was running, and he was very happy to see me. Among the disciples, Christopher ran for twelve or thirteen miles. Trishul was exhausted because he had already run two other races recently. This was his third race in three weeks.
Ketan was with us in the back seat while we were driving. Databir kept asking Ketan for directions, and Ketan immediately gave readymade answers.
There were about thirty disciples, mostly Canadians, who went to see our performance and cheer us while we ran.
RB 464. 14 February 1982↩
Today, at my three-and-a-half-mile point, I saw Nirjhari running. So I know she ran at least seven miles.
RB 465. 15 February 1982↩
RB 466. 15 February 1982↩
When I had covered only 500 metres, a young boy smiled at me and said to me, “How is your business going on?” Now, what is my business?
Later, a young man offered me a can of beer. I smiled at him. He said afterwards to the people in the car that there was much protein in beer.
RB 467. 15 February 1982↩
RB 468. 15 February 1982↩
Once a seeker was misusing his occult power by showing light, so Sri Ramakrishna took away the light. Ramakrishna did the man a big favour. But Abhipsa was not misusing his light, so I didn’t take it away.
RB 469. 15 February 1982↩
Dhanu was driving, and Databir, Ila and Nirvik were in the car. They are all witnesses.
RB 470. 18 February 1982↩
After half a mile, I realised that he had made a wrong turn. Then we retraced our steps until we came to a particular side street. I remembered from our previous training runs that it was the correct street, so I was looking over my shoulder at the car and signalling for Dhanu to come. He was ahead of me forty or fifty metres. While I was still looking backwards, I started running in the street.
Two young boys were passing by — one was running and the other was cycling. The boy who was cycling went right onto the sidewalk to avoid me and said to the other boy, “Can’t you see this blind man? He is looking in one direction and running in the other direction.”
The other boy said, “He can’t do a thing.” He didn’t listen to the other one and kept running on the street.
RB 471. 18 February 1982↩
Once Nathan was bragging that the hills he runs in Arizona are very steep. So I told him, “You come with me.” At first he didn’t want to admit that the hills I ran were steeper. But when I started barking at him, he confessed that these were steeper and more difficult.
RB 472. 18 February 1982↩
Later, I heard that they have a club. They run together every morning. After one mile they meditate before going back.
RB 473. 18 February 1982↩
RB 474. 20 February 1982↩
Then, just as I was crossing the finish line, they made an announcement that I was finishing.
After the race a photographer from a Long Island newspaper came to take my picture.
RB 475. 20 February 1982↩
I thought, “This mantra that he is saying is absolutely descending from Heaven. God is speaking to her through her husband.” I was so moved.
RB 476. 21 February 1982↩
RB 477. 24 February 1982↩
Since Rejean was the best runner, he should have shook their hands as hard as possible. Then they would have remembered his handshake. They might have forgotten his running, but they would never have forgotten his handshake.
So victory today went to Rejean. Abadh was second. Then just a little behind was Utpal. Nirvik also did well. He has broken his previous record.
RB 478. 27 February 1982↩
RB 479. 28 February 1982↩
Early in the morning is the best time for running. There is no car problem. You can run in the middle of the street.
RB 480. 2 March 1982↩
Saturday I was under a hundred and forty pounds. Then I ran in a two-mile race. During the race I felt that I had conquered the world, but after the race I felt tired and exhausted. Then relaxation started, and I gained four pounds.
RB 481. 2 March 1982↩
RB 482. 2 March 1982↩
The man who lives across from me was out with his dog. He was on the sidewalk and I was on the street. He always greets me first. But this time we just looked at each other. I did not recognise him, and he did not recognise me.
When I saw him enter into his house, I came to know who it was. Then I felt miserable. I said, “Every day he greets me, but today he did not greet me. “Baoul went to speak to him. He was very sad that he had not recognised me. So we both felt sad. I went home and felt sad, and he went home and felt sad.
Later I was playing the esraj on the porch, and he happened to be outside. I raised my hand, and he smiled. In this way we compensated.
RB 483. 6 March 1982↩
O God, when the runner turned around, I saw that it was Kanan. Luckily he didn’t hear what I had said. I did not want to disturb him because he was going for a long run. Therefore I deliberately did not call him to come join us in the car.
RB 484. 7 March 1982↩
RB 485. 7 March 1982↩
RB 486. 9 March 1982↩
RB 487. 31 March 1982↩
Then she said to me, “No bite, no bark, my Pauly!”
At that moment her dog started barking. I said, “As long as there is no bite, I don’t have to worry.”
But she got mad at her dog for barking.
RB 488. 7 April 1982↩
He was so fat and old! I don’t think he could have run eleven miles.
RB 489. 9 April 1982↩
On Tuesday the snow was killing me. I could not run in that kind of blizzard.
On Wednesday I ran four miles.
On Thursday in the morning I ran seven miles, then half a mile and then three miles. I was showing off. Bansidhar was running with me on Union Turnpike. He is a good runner. During the three-mile run I was taking such long strides! Then, when we came to the last four hundred metres, my strides were sixty-five inches. Later Bansidhar said it was difficult to keep up with me. So yesterday I completed ten and a half miles.
Then today, fourteen miles! Altogether I walked only sixty metres. After seven miles I walked twenty metres. Then, after ten miles, I walked forty metres. If I had done only thirteen miles, the pace would have been 9:23. But the fourteenth mile brought the average down.RB 491. 9 April 1982↩
Two seconds later I just raise my eyes, and I saw that same person right in front of me. It was Sunanda the great. She is the only one whom I saw while I was running today. Her soul had come to me one second earlier.
RB 492. 10 April 1982↩
Sri Chinmoy regards running as a perfect spiritual metaphor. “Try to be a runner and go beyond all that is bothering you and standing in your way,” he tells his students. “Be a real runner so that ignorance, limitations and imperfections will all drop far behind you in the race.” In this spirit he has inspired countless individuals to “run” — both literally and figuratively.
“Who is the winner?” he writes in one of his aphorisms. “Not he who wins the race, but he who loves to run sleeplessly and breathlessly with God the Supreme Runner.” As a fully God-realised spiritual Master, Sri Chinmoy has consecrated his life to this divinely soulful and supremely fruitful task. At the same time, on an entirely different level, he has made some significant contributions to the sport of running. He was the inspiration behind several long-distance relays, including a recent 300-mile run in Connecticut and the 9,000-mile Liberty-Torch run through all the states held during the 1976 Bicentennial. He has composed several running songs, which his students have performed at a number of races. His students have sponsored Sri Chinmoy Runs throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia as an offering to the running community. Moreover, Sri Chinmoy has encouraged his followers around the world to take up running as a means of overcoming lethargy and increasing their spiritual aspiration on the physical plane. Two hundred of his disciples, for example — most of whom were novice runners — completed last years’s New York City Marathon.
In the year he has been running, Sri Chinmoy himself has completed seven marathons. He averages about seventy to ninety miles a week, with most of his running done late at night or in the early hours of the morning. During his runs he has been chased by dogs, accosted by hooligans, greeted by admirers and cheered on by children. Sometimes he has had significant inner experiences; other times he has suffered deplorable outer experiences. As a spiritual Master of the highest order, Sri Chinmoy views these experiences — both the divine ones and the undivine ones — with a unique perspective. The running world is nothing but the human world in microcosm, and Sri Chinmoy’s reminiscences stand as a remarkable commentary on the whimsical, poignant, funny, outrageous and, above all, supremely significant experience we call life.From:Sri Chinmoy,Run and become, become and run, part 9, Agni Press, 1983
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/rb_9